UN climate chief's research institute won grants after flawed predictions on glaciers

The research institute headed by the controversial chair of the United
Nations' panel on climate change won funding to study Himalayan glaciers
after the panel published flawed predictions about glacier melting in the
area.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was forced to apologise after the prediction in its benchmark 2007 report - that Himalayan glaciers would disappear by 2035 - was revealed to have been based on unsubstantiated claims.

It can be revealed that The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), whose director is Rajendra Pachauri, the chair of the IPCC, was awarded a portion of two grants, which were worth a total of almost £3 million for research on the glaciers after the inaccurate claims were published.

The scientist who has been credited with first making the unsupported claim in 1999 that the glaciers could disappear by 2035 is Syed Iqbal Hasnain, is also now employed at TERI as the head of their glaciology team.

The revelations come after The Sunday Telegraph revealed that TERI was receiving up to £10 million of British taxpayers money for other projects amid controversy over the Indian-based Institute's finances.

The error in the IPCC report provoked widespread outrage that unsubstantiated evidence should appear in such an influential report, used by governments to make important policy decisions.

The mistake has been seized upon by climate change sceptics who insist it casts doubt on the robustness of the IPCC's conclusions about global warming.

Speaking at a press conference in India on Saturday, Mr Pachauri insisted the panel's conclusions on climate change were still sound despite the error in relation to the Himalayan glaciers.

He said he had no intention of resigning from his position as chair of the IPCC in the wake of the scandal and gave his backing Dr Hasnain despite the mistake.

He said: "This was a human error which should not have occurred and will not be repeated. We'll make sure we tell people what the processes are which have to be followed and exercise a level of surveillance to ensure nothing like this happens again."

He also responded to accusations that TERI had gained financially as a result of the alarm created by the claims in the IPCC report.

In a statement he added: "Research on climate change in TERI goes as far as back as 1987 – before the IPCC had been formed. Our work on glaciers started two years ago recognising the need for greater field based data generation and modelling.

"The IPCC report has also pointed out the need for more research in these areas."

TERI was awarded a share of a $500,000 grant from one of America's leading charities, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, through an Icelandic organisation known as the Global Centre for the study of glacier loss.

Kristján Guy Burgess, who founded the Global Centre and was involved in the application for the grant from the Carnegie Corporation, said: "The grant has not yet been distributed to TERI or any of the other partners.

"The unsubstantiated nature of the claims in the IPCC report puts greater foundation on doing better research on the melting of glaciers. I don't think whether glaciers will melt in 20 or 30 or more years impacts on the need to do this research."

TERI also won a share of a EUROS3 million research study last year funded by the European Union. The three year project, called HighMoon, is aimed at assessing the impact of Himalayan glacier retreat.

Mr Pachauri insisted that the institute had been one of a consortium of institutions that had bid for the funding in a competitive process.